Keep Me Warm
by Cristya Blade
Summary: RyoSaku nonyaoi, manga based, high school fic. Winner of my poll! Its winter and it seems everyone is getting a gift from Sakuno except Ryoma, the one that she promised to give a gift to. Ryoma is jealous and wonders if she remembers her promise at all.
1. Shopping Surprise

Prince of Tennis (RyoSaku) Non-yaoi

**Notes**: Manga based, Ryoma is probably a little OOC (to me is seems like he ALWAYS is, sigh), other chapters to be posted soon, hopefully. Set sophomore (1st) year of High School.

Thank you if you are someone who voted in my poll! A total of 18 people voted, that is more votes than I thought I would get (granted one of those votes were me, heh). This story was the winner of the poll (because of my vote, lol) and so I hope you have all been looking forward to it. I meant to have it done before Christmas but I learned something about myself- I don't work well in a no-pressure environment! Lol. I also don't like to post stories until they are complete or near completion so that is why I waited to post this one.

Please read the notes before each chapter. The point of view changes and there is a flashback chapter as well. I'm pretty sure people can catch these on their own but I don't want any "Why are they suddenly here doing this?!" flames.

**Info**:

THE JAPANESE SCHOOL YEAR: School in Japan BEGINS in April. It typically runs April through July and then there is a 1 or 2 month summer break (depending on the school). School is then attended usually September through December and then (beginning before New Years mind you) there is a short winter break. It begins again in January and goes until March. This is all the same school year (same grade). At this point (in March) people graduate and those who still go to school change to the next grade in April. School is also in session Monday through Saturday.

THE JAPANESE CURRENCY: I use the word "en" instead of "yen" because that's the word. We just say "yen" because "en" sounds too odd to say as a measure of currency. The word "yen" actually does not exist in the Japanese language o.0 I wanted to just use the symbol for it, like the dollar sign for the US, but you have to insert it as a symbol and it would not have shown up here on 1 USD is close enough to 100 en, so something that was 1000 en would only be 10 dollars!

NAMES: You can't exactly call first and last names "first and last" correctly in Japanese because the last names are usually said first. But I didn't want to keep saying "family name" or "personal name" or something lame like that, so I just said first and last name. Forgive me bows

Thank you, and hope you enjoy.

-----

"It's time to start getting all my Christmas gifts bought," Tomoka said grabbing a box of pocky. "I know most of what I'd like to get. I can go grab some of it now. How about you?"

Sakuno looked longingly at the pocky and sighed.

"I do need to get Christmas gifts but I don't get very much for allowance. This is the first time I've thought you were lucky for having to baby-sit your younger brothers- at least you get paid for it sometimes."

Tomoka picked up another box of pocky and bumped Sakuno on the head with it.

"Whatever," Tomoka said, "I'm going to go grab some stuff ok?"

Sakuno nodded and Tomoka ran off to a different section of the store.

Sakuno looked longingly at the rest of the candy but shook her head. That extra box of pocky was probably for her and… well she should be spending her extra money. The 650 en she did have left wouldn't buy anything suitable for a Christmas gift for anyone… and she wasn't likely to get much more. She only got about 15 en a week. Even if she did save it and combine it with the next couple of week's allowance there were so many people she wanted to buy presents for! Her mom and dad of course, and her grandma and Tomoka and- oh, so many of the girls in her class were nice- and the girls on the tennis team too, how could she forget about them? And of course… Ryoma. Not a lot of people knew that his birthday was December 24th. She'd known him four years and only barely found out on the third… she didn't even remember how she'd dragged the information out of him in the first place. It always turned out that she couldn't end up buying all of the presents she wanted and judging by the lack of funds this year would be no different. But she had to get something for Ryoma! It was Christmas and his birthday, after all.

Sakuno walked down the aisles and watches as things got less and less fancy- 'Premium Christmas Items,' 'Cute Christmas Corner,' 'Christmas Specials" … and after that they stopped trying to associate things with Christmas. Sakuno stopped at the bin marked 'Sale.' There was nothing spectacular and nothing under 10 en either. She sighed and went to wait for Tomoka by the door. She was ready to give up looking at this store- she liked it but she couldn't afford anything. She leaned back and heard a slight clatter as she felt a distinct poke in her ribs.

"Ow!"

She's leaned back a little too hard against a bin marked 'Clearance.'

Sakuno was used to digging through the clearance bin for herself but not for other people. Still, the sign said something about under 10 en and that looked promising.

Everything that the store couldn't sell was in the bin. Plastic sandals… yeah, who would want those in a foot and a half of snow? Broken ornaments… ugly ornaments… a scary doll that's package was damaged…

Nothing was looking very promising. She usually could at least find barrettes but not this time. On the other side of the bin there were books… Hmm, maybe a discount manga for someone? Let's see… _these_ shojo manga not even Tomoka would be interested in. Hmm, what else…

Sakuno was going to just back away- she wasn't too good of a judge of manga since she didn't read them much any way- but at the bottom of the pile of books she felt something… cushy.

Sakuno reached down and pulled out a clear plastic bag. Inside of it were two skeins of yarn and knitting needles and a book entitled "Learn How to Knit."

Sakuno turned the package over to examine it… blue and white yarn! Hey, school colors, perfect. She could make a scarf and give it to…

Sakuno's face turned red. If she made a scarf could she really give it to _him_? Would he like a scarf or were they too feminine? Or… would it just be too embarrassing to wear something she made? But… he did hate the cold. And a scarf was a nice personal gift if it was hand made. It was also kind of typical for girls to give scarves to the guys they liked so maybe he'd realize… No, that was expecting too much from him. But he might at least like it.

Sakuno sighed. Maybe he would. She counted her money again really quick to make sure she still had all of it and began her search for a price tag. 1600 en marked down to 1200 en marked down to… 800 en. Ah! She still couldn't afford it! She could buy it next week with her allowance but it would be gone by then. The only other thing to do was ask Tomoka to borrow 150 en but Tomoka was already buying her candy and besides, she needed the money herself. Everyone needed money around the holidays. But still, it was only 150 en and she'd pay it back. Ah! But still, just asking for it was…

Sakuno shifted her weight back and forth as she tried to decide what to do.

"You look confused," a male voice came, interrupting her thoughts.

"Eh?!" Sakuno said, looking up with a start.

"Hello there Ryuuzaki-chan!" a tall curly redhead said beaming at her.

Sakuno smiled but found herself in a bind- she wasn't sure she knew his last name. She knew everyone's name on the team, yes. After all, she'd watched their matches occasionally since junior high and she'd learned a lot from them. Most of their names were easy to remember. This one, however, everyone called by his first name so she didn't hear his last name much. And in official matches where she might have the opportunity to hear it he mostly played doubles and even the announcers called him and Oishi by their nickname, the golden pair, and not their real names. Sakuno tried to dig down in her memory but she didn't know. Was it something like Kikimeru? No, that sounded like some lame magical girl. It wasn't that she didn't have a name for him; it was just that he was a senior and she was only a sophomore so was it really ok to call him by his first name? It looked like she would have to.

Sakuno's frantic attempt to remember didn't take more than a couple of seconds in reality, so no one would have noticed, but she herself was embarrassed about it so her cheeks turned a little red as she bowed, flustered.

"H-hello Eiji-senpai. Wh-what are you doing here?"

There was a loud noise behind the magazine rack nearby that prevented her from actually hearing what he said but when he held up a bag of groceries it was pretty obvious.

"How about you," he asked, "what you got there?"

"Uh-um, it's," Sakuno wrapped her arms around the package a little tighter. On occasion when she did hang around the Seigaku tennis team she sometimes heard the regulars teasing Ryoma about her when they thought she was out of earshot.

If Eiji thought she was going to make the scarf for Ryoma they'd probably tease him about it and then he would like her even less. Or Eiji might even tease her about it here and now and she didn't do well with that kind of thing.

"It's a kit to learn how to knit. I-I've been wanting to learn how for a while now."

It wasn't a complete lie, or Sakuno would have never been able to squeak it out.

"Oh," Eiji said slyly with a little chuckle, "going to make anything for anyone in particular?"

Sakuno could almost feel her face getting redder but she knew she couldn't stutter or it would give her away.

"No," she said a little too loudly. She cleared her throat. "No, I just wanted to learn how to knit. I thought if I could get this I could learn how and make scarves for people for Christmas because buying yarn is less expensive than buying gifts for everyone and it would be home made too, so…"

"I see," Eiji replied. "So you're going to buy it?"

"Um, actually," Sakuno said setting it down again, embarrassed about her small rant, "It's 800 en and I only have 650 left. So, um, I can't afford it right now. M-maybe it'll be here next week."

"Probably not," Eiji said cocking his head to the side.

Sakuno looked back over at the kit- yeah he was probably right. It would have been nice to make scarves for her family too, though. Would have saved her some trouble.

"Hey how about this," Eiji said juggling his sack as he bounced towards the kit energetically, "I'll buy the kit for you if you make me the scarf, ok?"

"Ah, n-no, I… I couldn't have you be the one to buy it. I mean, I would feel bad, so…"

"It's no problem, really!" Eiji said. "I was going to buy a scarf that was 1300 en any way, so this will save me some money. Plus, nya, this way I'll get a scarf from a cute girl."

Sakuno was too caught up in blushing to say anything more.

"Do you think you can finish it before school gets out for break?"

Oh that's right. Winter break was fast approaching. And the seniors would be taking big tests and getting ready to graduate and things like that.

"I'm pretty fast with crafts so I can probably get it done way before then," Sakuno said hoping that she didn't regret her words.

"Ok then," Eiji said heading off to the registers.

"H-hey I don't need you to buy it for me," Sakuno said following, "just giving me the 150 en is more than enough!"

"Naw, you're going to knit it all by hand. I insist!"

Eiji bought the kit while Sakuno looked on helplessly. She'd been around the regulars a lot and on occasion she would make them food so they seemed to like her well enough but she wasn't sure they were really friends or anything- especially with the seniors since this was only her second year around them. Eiji must just be a nice guy.

"Here you go," he said handing her the bag.

"Thank you very much," she said bowing deeply.

"No problem. I'm looking forward to it, nya!"

Sakuno managed a smile in her nerve-wracked state.

"See you around Sakuno-chan!" he said skipping out the door.

"Y-yes," she said waving awkwardly.

Sakuno tried to let a deep breath out then but she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. Sakuno jumped and the hand pulled away.

"Ah, Sakuno, you're jumpy!" Tomoka said.

"S-sorry."

"Were you talking to Eiji-senpai just now?"

"Yeah, that was him," Sakuno said pointing in the direction he'd run off to.

"Lucky," Tomoka said fishing around her bag.

"Here's this," she said holding out the box of pocky.

"You don't have to get me things like that," Sakuno said.

"Well duh, I know. But you're my friend and I could tell you wanted some."

Sakuno smiled and accepted the box.

"Thank you."

"So what did you get?" Tomoka said glancing at her bag.

"Uh, a knitting kit," Sakuno said.

"Oh. Are you going to make a scarf for Ryoma-sama?! How cute! How did you afford it though? How much do you have left?"

"Um I still have 650 en. Actually, the scarf will be for Eiji-senpai since he um… bought the kit for me."

"What?" Tomoka said as Sakuno hurried her out the door since she knew Tomoka would only get louder.

"LUCKY!!!" she said about three times as loud just outside.

-----

Sorry if there are minor errors, it was typed up fast and still no proofreader. I am having trouble with the title, so is this one ok? And also I'm not sure about the rating, it could probably be K, should I change it? I dunno, I guess it doesn't matter. Please tell me if you are looking forward to the next chapter! It'll make me type it faster, lol. :)


	2. From Behind the Magazines

Prince of Tennis (RyoSaku) Non-yaoi

**Notes**: Manga based, Ryoma is probably a little OOC (to me is seems like he ALWAYS is, sigh), other chapters to be posted soon, hopefully. Set sophomore (1st) year of High School.

I totally forgot to mention in the first post that this story was giving me ideas for the EWB sequel. So it might be related to it a bit… or not. Actually I originally wrote this around their graduation time (the seniors) but then I realized it wouldn't be that cold in March and also why would Ryoma get a scarf then? My dumb is fantastic.

This chapter is Ryoma's POV... It's short but the next one is long :D

-----

Ryoma flipped through another tennis magazine. He couldn't decide which to buy. All of them had nice stats on other players but none had any tips that would be helpful to him.

He looked up from his magazine when he heard a familiar noise from the other side of the magazine rack. He moved a couple of magazines around and peered through a crack between the shelves- yup, that whining was coming from Ryuuzaki Sakuno. Who else?

It looked as if she was looking through some manga but then she picked up a clear plastic bag from underneath the pile with some yarn in it.

Ryoma almost laughed as she looked at it for a moment and blushed. It was terribly, truly terrible, just like something out of some cheesy shojo manga. There she was, clutching the package tightly with a big blush on her face, probably thinking about making something for the guy she liked or something… … … Ryoma couldn't believe how silly it was. But he didn't realize that his face was turning a little red just watching.

Sakuno pulled some money out of her pocket and counted and then searched for a price tag. From the looks of things she didn't have enough. She started swaying back and forth and Ryoma rolled his eyes. Looked like it was time for him to step in and save her _again_. Really, always needing to be saved… what a _bothersome _girl. Well, maybe he's get something out of it. Like… uh, like a bento lunch or something…

Just as Ryoma was about to put the magazines back that he's been looking through he heard a loud "Eh?!" from the other side of the rack. He quickly looked through the crack again. There she was, talking to… Kikumaru Eiji! Looking up at him her face was getting even redder. What was going on?

"H-hello Eiji-senpai. Wh-what are you doing here?"

Huh? She was stuttering again. And did she just call him _Eiji­­_?

Ryoma leaned in closer but his hand slid on a magazine and he fell over while fallen magazines piled on top of him. He sighed and sat up, hoping that no one heard that.

Ryoma got up with a pile of magazines in his arms and started stacking them back on the shelf.

"Going to make anything for anyone in particular?" Eiji asked Sakuno.

"No!" Sakuno replied loudly.

Ryoma paused and put the magazines back on the shelf over the crack. He went to round the corner- he would just pass by and leave and it wouldn't be a big deal- but he paused when he heard Eiji ask her to make him the scarf and something about wanting a scarf from a cute girl.

Ryoma sighed and rubbed his head. It would be easier to leave once they did.

As if on cue, Eiji walked off and Sakuno quickly followed.

'Well,' Ryoma thought as he left the store, 'looks like I didn't need to rescue her after all. Good.' It was a good thing that Ryoma didn't need to help Sakuno out yet again, right? Then… why didn't it feel all that great?

He hurried on ahead; he didn't want either of them to catch up with him. But why? After all, Eiji was his friend and team mate. And Sakuno, well, this would be his fourth year knowing her. She was quiet and they hadn't talked that often until their senior year of junior high even though they'd known each other since they were twelve. He liked her just as much as he liked anyone else, he supposed. At first she was really bad at tennis but she'd gotten better. Pretty fast, actually. She could recognize moves and call games. Any way during that senior year of junior high they'd gotten pretty close, so… to him, she was…

Oh, well… she'd given him a present for his birthday last year and he was fairly indifferent about it _he _thought. After all, he got several… well, SOME presents, from his family at least, this time of year since it _was _Christmas and his birthday. But she had chuckled and said he actually looked happy so she'd remember to give him a birthday present the next year too. He wondered if she would actually remember.


	3. The First Scarf

Prince of Tennis (RyoSaku) Non-yaoi

**Notes**: Manga based, Ryoma is probably a little OOC (to me is seems like he ALWAYS is, sigh), other chapters to be posted soon, hopefully. Set sophomore (1st) year of High School.

This chapter has both Sakuno and Ryoma's point of view. Hopefully it's a bit longer. On one hand I apologize that the last chapter was short but then again that's the convenience of having a story pre-written, chapters can be long or short and you don't feel obligated to stretch them :)

As I was writing it, I felt like this story was boring. If it is boring I feel guilty posing it, but it seems to be well received so I hope people like it after all :) Thank you very much to those who review/comment, storyalert, or favorite. It means very much to me! It actually makes me so happy that I keep the emails that fanficnet sends, ha ha.

-----

Sakuno sighed and rubbed her eyes. It was later than she thought; she hadn't been keeping track of the time. At first with this knitting stuff she was frustrated, but after picking her stuff apart only a couple of times she finally got the hang of the knit step. Pearl was harder, but she'd gotten that too, just barely. She cheered inwardly a little when she reached twelve rows but realized it was 2 a.m. and she had school tomorrow. But at least it was Saturday, the last day of the week, and then she'd have Sunday off. If she worked hard enough she could likely finish it by Monday. And if she could finish one that quickly then she wouldn't have any trouble with the rest… hopefully.

-----

Tomoka leaned over Sakuno's desk, partly so that no one else would hear their conversation and partly so she could steal some of her lunch.

"So how did things go this morning?"

"Tomoka! It wasn't anything… I was just giving him his scarf…"

Tomoka chuckled.

"I know. I was just wondering. You said you were going to give it to him Monday, after all, and its Friday now. Did you finally get the hang of putting the pieces together smoothly?"

"Yeah," Sakuno replied. "I was really frustrated with it so I decided to make my parent's scarves first."

"Wow, you made them already?" Tomoka said.

"Yeah, my mom's and dad's and my grandmother's too. They were all just solid colored ones so it was easy to make them and the yarn was not too expensive."

"Wow you made four scarves in, what, six days? You're like a pro now!"

"Not really," Sakuno said, "After all I just barely finished Eiji's scarf. I can't believe I missed the part where it said you just kind of sew the sections together to make a striped scarf. If I hadn't seen it I never would have known how."

"Well, you did it though, so it all worked out," Tomoka said stealing another bit from Sakuno's lunch.

"Actually, there's something that I've tried but haven't been able to do, um…"

Sakuno glanced over at Ryoma. He wasn't the least bit interested in their conversation more than likely, but even so he could overhear so better to be careful about it.

"Well…" Sakuno pulled Tomoka in and whispered something to her.

"Oh," Tomoka said, "No, I've never heard of anyone doing that with knitting, but I don't know that much about it. You'll have to do it with crochet."

"What?!" Sakuno practically yelled. It was very uncommon for her to raise her voice so almost everyone was staring at her. She tried to keep from blushing and turned her attention back to Tomoka.

"But I really wanted to do that. To make it special, you know? How am I going to learn to crochet?"

"It's easy," Tomoka said, "I can teach you."

Sakuno's eyes widened. "You know how?"

"Sure," Tomoka replied, "my mom taught me. She says I need to learn lady-like things. Yeah right, like I'm not lady-like already," Tomoka said leaning back and picking at her teeth.

"Ooh, thank you Tomoka!"

"No problem."

-----

Ryoma sighed and dropped his head down on his desk. He hadn't especially had a good day. Well, it seemed like a regular day but it was just putting him in a bad mood or something…

He got to school early for tennis practice for once. Waking up early- ah, bad mood reason number one. Any way, when he rounded the corner near the courts he saw something rather unusual. There were Sakuno and Eiji all alone talking to each other. Sakuno dug around in a bag and nervously handed Eiji something blue and white… oh. It must have been that scarf. She had made it for him after all.

'Well,' Ryoma thought a bit resentfully, 'there was that shojo moment after all.'

At the time it had indeed put him in a bad mood but he didn't believe- or at least chose not to believe- that it did.

He didn't talk to the regulars that morning and decided not to eat lunch with them either. To him of course it had nothing to do with that morning; he just didn't _feel _like it. Then when he tried going up on the roof to eat lunch he found it was snowing pretty hard. It if kept up at that rate practice would be canceled after school again.

Ok so he had to eat lunch in his classroom. Bad mood reason number… number two. Right?

Then he was stuck in the classroom- where he was now. He had figured Sakuno would let him eat lunch with her. She usually did _and _she would usually share her lunch too.

When he walked up to Sakuno he was glad to see she had a big smile on her face.

"Hey Ryuuzaki, I'm going to eat lunch with you today ok?"

Sakuno smiled again but a bit… more unsure this time.

"You know you're always welcome to eat lunch with me Ryoma-kun."

He smiled.

"But," she continued and his face fell, "I really need to talk to Tomoka about um…"

Sakuno looked away and blushed a little. It made Ryoma want to be turned away even less.

"About some secret stuff, so maybe it would be best if you ate lunch with the team?"

"…Right," Ryoma said, back to his usual straight face, "ok."

"Thank you Ryoma-kun."

Ryoma nodded and went back to his desk- not back to his team. That's where he had ended up now… head on his desk.

Well, whether or not it was about Sakuno, getting turned down to eat lunch with someone sucked- so bad mood reason number three.

Come to think of it, he and Sakuno hadn't talked much this year yet… for whatever reason. So that would have been a perfect opportunity for her to ask him what he wanted for his birthday. It wasn't as if Ryoma was greedy or anything, it's just that usually he wasn't the easiest person to shop for, so for those who did know it was his birthday, they always asked what he wanted… sometimes several times.

But about Sakuno's gift… well… he didn't want her to stress out or spend a lot of money… no, he really didn't want to trouble her at all. But for some reason he _did _want a gift from her… he just couldn't tell why. Last year he remembered how happy she had been to give him one… Maybe he was…

"What?!" someone in the classroom practically yelled. Ryoma must have been near sleep because it surprised him enough to snap his head right off of his desk. He didn't recognize the voice at first but it was Sakuno's! She looked rather upset. Hmm, probably about something that loud mouth Tomoka said.

There was a very very slight chance Ryoma _might _have gone over there to see what was wrong but he was still feeling a little scorned so he just turned over on his desk again. It was probably about their stupid _secrets _any way.


	4. The Second Scarf

Prince of Tennis (RyoSaku) Non-yaoi

**Notes**: Manga based, Ryoma is probably a little OOC (to me is seems like he ALWAYS is, sigh), other chapters to be posted soon, hopefully. Set sophomore (1st) year of High School.

This chapter is also in both Sakuno and Ryoma's POV. I was thinking maybe I should have combined the last chapter and this chapter. I dunno. What do you think? By the way, I don't crochet, I only knit.

-----

"Let's see it!" Tomoka said.

Sakuno held out her work for Tomoka to examine.

"You finally finished it!" Tomoka exclaimed.

"Is it ok?"

"It's perfect!"

"I'm happy I finished it," Sakuno said, "but it's taken me a whole week. And it's kinda thicker than I like. The knitting was nicer."

"Really?" Tomoka said. "I like crochet better."

"I think what I'll do is crochet the ends- because I'll have to, you know, but I'll knit the middle. It won't be any harder adding a crochet piece to a knit piece than a knit piece to another knit piece, right?"

"Yeah," Tomoka said nodding, "that might look really cool. What you going to do with this one?"

"I don't know, it's an extra."

"Well its team colors, you should just give it to whoever wants it on the team."

"T-that would be nice, but… um… I can't just… you know?"

"Come on it wouldn't be that hard to just walk in there and wave it around and say 'who wants a scarf from a cute girl?'"

"Tomoka! You know I couldn't do that!"

Tomoka chuckled. "I know. I'm kidding. Your grandma goes to the high school about once a week to help co-coach, right? So just tell her to give it to one of them for Christmas."

"That sounds ok," Sakuno nodded.

"Good. Now how's the other part of the project coming?"

-----

"Grandma!" Sakuno said as she threw her arms around her grandmother. Sumire chuckled.

"Hello Sakuno. Ah come on now, its only been a couple weeks."

"Just… happy to see you!"

Sakuno visited and stayed with her grandmother often- she was there almost as often as she was at her own home. Her parents were both good people but very busy.

"I made you this for Christmas," Sakuno said handing her grandmother a bag.

Sumire took the bag and opened it rather unceremoniously quickly.

"Grandma, that was for Christmas!"

"I know," she chuckled, "but I didn't feel like waiting. I'm old."

"Whatever grandma," Sakuno said rolling her eyes, "do you like it?"

"Yes, I do," she said putting it on.

"Do you like the color?" Sakuno said nervously. Rose pink- it was her grandmother's favorite color but she hardly owned anything that was pink. She just wasn't that girly around others. Sakuno supposed it was just easier that way- whether or not you knew what you were talking about, teenage boys weren't likely to listen to you about sports if you wore pink.

Sumire smiled. "It is my favorite color dear. And it'll remind me of you."

Sakuno smiled back.

"Thank you dear," Sumire said messing up Sakuno's hair.

"I have an extra one you can give to the team members, ok?" Sakuno said shyly.

"Oh, do you want me to pass it on to one _Ryoma Echizen_?"

"Oh no," Sakuno said so enthusiastically that it surprised Sumire. "No," she continued, "that one's not for him. In fact, can you please make sure he's not the one who takes it?"

Sumire raised an eyebrow but agreed.

"Ok, I'll find a way to make sure."

"Thanks grandma. I'm happy I get to stay with you for Christmas."

"Me too Sakuno."

-----

Ryoma arrived late but today former coach Ryuuzaki was there so he was sure to hear it from her more than usual.

All the regulars were gathered sitting around her and Ryoma took his place in the circle. As usual she was talking about the strengths and weaknesses of the other team. Ryoma knew them, he'd played them before. Now it was true that they'd probably changed but that was part of the fun of it- adapting during the game. After all, the Seigaku team had changed too. She finished her summary and discussed some things with the team.

"Oh!" she said as they were all getting up, "hold on, one more thing."

She dug around in her gym bag and pulled out a blue and white scarf.

"Do any of you need a scarf? My granddaughter made an extra while she was practicing."

Ryoma was slightly ticked off. If Sakuno had half a brain at times like these she would have just remembered it was his birthday and she could have just given him the extra. Well, he wasn't going to go for this one any way. Maybe he'd bother her later about what she was giving him and she'd feel bad about not thinking of giving him the extra… something like that.

Momo went to raise his hand but when Ryoma looked in his direction it shot back down. Momoshiro wasn't especially afraid of him but he could be pretty fierce at times. Kaido just didn't want to interfere- he'd rather stay out of it.

"I already got one from Sakuno-chan!" Eiji said happily. Sumire raised her eyebrow both because she was wondering why Sakuno had made and given Eiji a scarf and why in the world Eiji had the guts to call her 'Sakuno.'

"I mean Ryuuzaki-chan," Eiji said realizing his slip up. "Uh, gotta go practice."

Eiji got up and skipped away with Momo and Kaido in tow.

Fuji said he would have gladly taken it, and he would have too just to mess with Ryoma a bit, but his sister had just given him a scarf so he wanted to wear hers.

Kawamura probably wouldn't have minded a scarf from a cute girl like Sakuno, but he was also nice enough not to want to take this one right in front of Ryoma. Oishi was the same so he left as well.

People were starting to leave and Sumire was a bit irritated that they weren't cooperating in keeping Ryoma away from the scarf.

"Uh here," Inui said, "I like thick scarves. I'll have it."

Ryoma stared at Inui but it had no effect on him at all- Inui was among the scariest of all the team members.

Ryoma watched as Inui got up and examined it and said it was good work and to tell her thank you.

Ryoma was a little surprised when he found himself looking at Inui and feeling angry- and doubly so when Inui and Eiji were standing side by side with their blue and white scarves.

So far as Ryoma knew no one on the team knew it was his birthday and they weren't really Christmas people. In fact, he'd taken pretty good care to keep anyone from knowing it was his birthday so the only gifts he were really looking forward to were his parents' and maybe Nanako's and his brother's and Sakuno's…

Ah, there she was again! Hadn't he decided not to let it bother him? No, no he was just thinking earlier that he was going to guilt her about it. Why did it matter to him any ways?


	5. Last year on my birthday

Prince of Tennis (RyoSaku) Non-yaoi

Notes: Manga based, other chapters to be posted soon, hopefully. I'm struggling with my depression a bit right now so it might take me a little longer. Set sophomore (1st) year of High School.

Info: Just so you all know (I'm sure you all knew any way) Ryoma really does have a brother (brothers, two, I think?). I STILL haven't read every chapter of the manga (there are SO MANY) but I know that at least one brother got put in there. So I didn't just make that up, ha ha. And I took the OOC warning off of this chapter… I think I did a pretty good job keeping him in character this chappy..? Lol. I dunno, I never do. Also, I wrote a few times that Ryoma said he did not like his birthday. I don't see much indication that Ryoma likes or dislikes his birthday in the manga (everyone likes them a little) but most people I know who have Christmas birthdays did not like their birthdays... so I don't mind if you argue that Ryoma does like his birthday after all. I don't know/care if he does or doesn't. I just wrote it this way :) ok?

If you see a spelling error in here I don't mind a PM (a PM, not a review) that points it out since I don't have a proofreader ok? But if you see a grammatical error, don't bother pointing them out, they are probably in there on purpose. "I like me my not good grammar."

I actually wasn't going to post this chapter for a while since I don't already have the next one after it written, but I decided if I got one more actual review that I would post it after all. So you can all thank pinkicing101 for leaving me a nice review, ha ha. Thanks also to my good and personal friend Shahrezad1 for actually coming to read my stories. I think I might have converted her to RyoSaku-ism. You should visit her author page if you like het GW.

Note: From the very beginning I was thinking about what their previous Christmas/Ryoma's birthday must have been like to warrant a home made gift like a scarf (or any big or planned gift at all). I didn't want Sakuno barely finding out about it the year this was set, I wanted her to already know about it so I had so have something the year before like how she found out or how it went or something. I kept telling myself "I am not going to write a flashback, I am not going to write a flashback…" so I mentioned the previous year like maybe twice..? Just a little. Any way I finally caved and wrote the flashback of the previous year. Therefore, this chapter is Ryoma remembering his birthday senior year of junior high.

-----

Ryoma looked out his bedroom window. It was snowing again. And Ryoma had, once again, been in a bad mood all day. He should have been angry that it was snowing, but after staring at it for a while until his eyes almost lost focus he felt a little calmer.

'It was snowing then, too, wasn't it?'

He was trying to remember his birthday last year. Well… it was probably a lot like all of his other birthdays so he thought back to all his birthdays/Christmases… family family family… he always spent them with family. That was ok, he guessed, even though his dad was there. But it just didn't seem so appealing to spend both his birthday and Christmas with them any more. Somehow last year had been a little different- just a little.

-----

"It's your birthday on the 24th? Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno asked, leaning back against the fence as she sat on the side of the court.

"… Yeah," he said after a pause, "how did you know?"

"It's um… right here on your student I.D. On the back…" she said slowly. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to nose around or anything. It fell out of your bag when you grabbed your towel so I was putting it back…"

"Whatever," Ryoma said, a little irritated. "Which serve is better, the one that I've been doing lately or the variation I made up?"

Sakuno paused to think about it.

"W-well I do like your original serve a lot but... um but… I think this one will be more effective against opponents who are… ah… taller than you."

Both Sakuno and Ryoma froze for a moment. He could just see the 'uh-oh' look on her face. Height could sometimes be an issue with him. Sakuno had gotten as tall as he was and he didn't feel like he'd grown at all. His mom kept assuring him that he would, but…

"You know," Ryoma said, a smile appearing on his face despite himself, "You're right. I think you're right."

-----

He hadn't heard her say anything about it since then and he'd told her not to say anything to anyone so Ryoma figured Sakuno had forgotten all about his birthday.

He left his house that night because his father and brother kept making comments about him all day… and few of them were good. Perhaps they weren't intentionally being mean and they weren't insults, exactly, but it seemed like constant nagging. 'Ryoma needs to improve on this. Ryoma doesn't do such-and-such. Ryoma hasn't bla bla bla yet.' Hearing everything that he could improve on whenever the attention was focused on him was really getting old, even if it was just "teasing." So, much to his mother's dismay, he insisted on taking a walk.

It was snowing- not heavily but it still made it a little cold. Besides, people didn't want to be out walking in the snow that was already on the ground. So he was a bit surprised when he did see someone down the street.

Normally he didn't talk to people on the street. And Ryoma was originally headed in the other direction, if he remembered correctly. But for some reason that night, maybe because the person looked lost or at least disoriented or something, he went to see if they were ok. He bent down to see what they were up to but-

"Ryuuzaki?"

"Ah! Ryoma-kun…"

Oh… she was crying. Ryoma stood up and backed away half a step. Hmm… this was uncomfortable.

"Sorry," she said sniffling and wiping at her face with her mittens.

He was a little caught off guard. Her grandmother lived kind of near by, but he had no idea where her actual parents lived. He still didn't. And even though her grandmother did live near by he'd never seen her in this neighborhood.

"Um… what are you doing around here?"

Sakuno continued to wipe at her face, which was red from the cold, embarrassment, and of course from crying.

"Well I remembered it was your birthday. D-don't worry, I didn't tell anyone… I just thought since it was your birthday… I wanted to get you a gift."

Ryoma laughed but stopped when Sakuno's face began to wrinkle up again.

"Don't worry about it; I don't usually get a lot of gifts. I don't like my birthday much any way. Sometimes my whole family will get together… it just feels like an opportunity for everyone to make fun of Ryoma," he said with a little chuckle, although it did slightly annoy him.

"Any way," he continued, "So, you came out to give me a gift? Or..? Sorry… what are you doing?"

"Well the… truth is… I think I lost your gift in the park over there. I set it down for a minute to… tie my shoe… and then, um… some stuff happened so I had to leave it real quick… and when I went back to look I couldn't find it."

Ryoma rolled his eyes, but he could tell she was concerned about it so he'd just play along. She'd been a good friend since everyone else had started leaving… well, more like she'd been like that all along; maybe he'd just been more receptive to it then.

_Ryoma shook his head and wondered how his mind had wandered off topic. What had he been thinking about again? Oh yeah, last year and how they'd gone out into the snow._

"Ok where were you when you lost it?"

"Sitting on the swing reading the address that Momoshiro-senpai gave me for the third time… actually I had a hard time finding anything around here. Your address is so weird… but it was hard to find any addresses because they were all on the wrong side of the road because of this big shrine."

"Yeah," he said slowly, "that's where I live…"

"Ok," she said equally slowly because she didn't quite understand. So he lived in one of those oddly placed houses she'd mentioned?

"Um," she continued, "then next time I'll just look more carefully."

Both of them, who were equally confused at this point, just continued to search.

"How did you loose it?"

"Well, it's in white wrapping paper… I guess I really should be able to see it though."

"Why did you put it down in the first place? It's not that hard to read while _holding something_… or is that just an acquired skill?"

"I WAS holding on to it," she said, "but some people spotted me. Um… they weren't friendly people, I've met them before and they said some bad things to me. So…"

Ryoma looked over to Sakuno, who had brushed off a swing and seated herself on it.

"So I ran away. And I forgot to look for the package before I ran."

Ryoma sat down on the other swing. He'd had about enough of this, he wanted to go home. He sighed in frustration when he realized he probably couldn't do so until they'd found whatever it was that she'd lost. Couldn't he just ask her for his birthday present for him to be back inside his warm house? Heck, he'd even take her there and risk never-ending teasing from his father if she would just consent to going back inside where it was warm.

He had looked at her and thought… she must constantly have some sign on her back that said 'pick on me' or a charm that attracted trouble… something.

"I'm sorry I left it and ran away," she said. "That was irresponsible."

Still? Yeah, because of the way they'd met she'd always been a little… Er, maybe she thought…

"I should have just faced them and stood up for myself. They might have backed off. I should be more like you, Ryoma-kun. You always stand up to people if they-"

"Che," Ryoma cut her off, "You stupid girl."

There was a long pause. Ryoma needed the time to calm down, actually. He was almost ready to yell at her.

"What you did was fine."

Sakuno looked up.

"But Ryoma-kun always-"

"Things are different for me and you, Ryuuzaki. You knew that from that moment on the train, right? I'm glad you listened to me when I've told you to stand up for yourself but there's a difference between being brave and being an idiot. So what you did was fine, you just avoided it, instead of getting in to some stupid trouble for no reason."

Sakuno nodded but was still frowning.

"Ok that's fine," she said, "but I still lost your present."

Ryoma sighed. He was so frustrated that it almost came out as a growl.

"I told you its _fine_," he said. "I don't really get a lot of presents any way. I don't really like my birthday that much!"

"Ok," Sakuno said and her frown only deepened, "but isn't that… kind of depressing?"

He looked over at her with every intention to just reply 'it's fine' but she had her 'be sincere' face on and he knew if he only said that it was fine he would get some kind of lecture.

"Yeah," he sighed, "I guess it kind of is." After that he actually felt like it was. What did this stupid girl make him feel sometimes?

"Alright then," she said standing suddenly, "I'm going to stay out here until I find it!"

"Uh, no..!" Ryoma said also standing up suddenly, afraid that he would have to stay outside longer-

**Crunch.**

Ryoma winced… crap, if he'd just crushed his own present and Sakuno started to cry and he couldn't go back to the warm indoors of his house again he was going to go bury himself in the snow and die then and there.

"Ah," Sakuno cried, "that sounded kind of like…"

Sakuno shooed him aside and leaned over to dig in his footprint.

"My barrette! I dropped this, too."

She dug around some more and smiled.

"And here's your present."

It was tiny; it didn't even take up her whole palm. No wonder she'd lost it.

She handed it over and Ryoma took it.

"Open it up."

He did so. It was so tiny that as soon as the tape was off the gift was practically unwrapped.

"It's a racket pin-"

"For your hat."

"Oh. And… hey! An 'R' decal! I've been looking all over for these!"

Sakuno chuckled.

"I know. I hope I got the right one that goes on the bottom of your racket handle. Yours fell off and I knew you were having trouble finding another one…"

"I was, it was impossible. Where did you find it?"

"I had to go online and get it on yaBe," Sakuno said. "And it wasn't even easy to find on there."

Sakuno was quiet for a moment while Ryoma was examining his things but she was turning so red she must have felt like she had to say something.

"You're smiling."

"What? No… nothing more than usual," Ryoma protested a little.

"Well," Sakuno said with a shy smile as she kicked the snow around her feet, "you look happy."

Ryoma's cheeks got a little red throughout the whole ordeal. It turned out to be lucky for him that he'd been out in the snow. He could just blame it on that.

"I know!" she said looking up enthusiastically, "Since it made you happy I promise I'll remember to give you a present next year too!"

"You really don't have to. I didn't get you anything."

"Well, it's not _my _birthday," she said, "so that's fine. But um… since I have a hard time finding your house how about I just give it to you in school?"

Ryoma felt a little conflicted. For some reason he felt a little down that she wouldn't attempt to find his house again, but it was a good thing because if she didn't ever show up there none of his family could tease him for having a girlfriend… er… girl friend. Girl. Friend. Separate.

"Whatever," he said uncomfortably, "let's just both get home. It's freezing out here and I hate the cold."

-----

He'd sighed then and he sighed now too. He wished he'd quit remembering. And he wished he'd quit thinking about it in general. And he wished his stupid team mates would quit flaunting those home made Sakuno scarves around him! Sakuno's bad memory and his bad memory (for most things besides tennis) rivaled each other very closely. She'd probably forgotten. He'd probably end up getting nothing.


End file.
